Prevalence of Percutaneous Injuries and Associated Factors Among a Sample of Midwives in Hunan Province, China.

Background: Percutaneous injuries and blood-borne-related infections pose occupational hazards to healthcare professionals. However, the prevalence and associated factors for these hazards among midwives in Hunan Province, China are poorly documented. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among a sample of 1,282 eligible midwives in the cities of Yongzhou, Chenzhou, Hengyang, and Changsha in Hunan Province, China, from January 2017 to July 2017. The association of selected independent variables with percutaneous injuries was investigated using binary logistic regression. Results: 992 participants responded (77.3%), and within the previous 12 months, 15.7% experienced percutaneous injuries. In multivariate analysis, hospital size, age, length of employment as a midwife, weekly working hours, and three aspects of Hospital Safety Climate Scale were associated with percutaneous injuries. The risk of percutaneous injuries among the midwives working in hospitals with ≤399 beds was higher than that among those working in hospitals with ≥400 beds by nearly 3 times. Furthermore, the percutaneous injury prevalence of midwives decreased as age increased. Moreover, the probability of percutaneous injuries among the midwives with weekly working hours of >40 was 4.35 times higher compared with that among midwives with weekly working hours of ≤40. Conclusion/Application to practice: The prevalence of percutaneous injuries among midwives in the study hospitals was substantial. Our results further proved that risk mitigation strategies tailored to midwives are needed to reduce this risk. These strategies include ensuring a positive organizational climate, providing highly safe devices, and reducing the workload.

Understanding sharps use in an Australian Emergency Department: A mixed methods organisational case study.

BACKGROUND: Despite the introduction of a range of safety policies and sharps equipment designed to protect healthcare workers, rates of percutaneous injuries from occupational exposure to sharps remains high. This study examined the availability and use of various types of sharps devices in a tertiary hospital emergency department, to understand clinician choice between non-safety and safety devices; and to document their safe and unsafe use of sharps. METHODS: This mixed methods study consisted of areview of stock levels, a survey of staff usage, and a content analysis of semi-structured interview data to explore factors which impact on staff preferences for different sharps devices. RESULTS: Staff identified a range of sharps risks, as well as barriers and enablers to the use of safety devices. Availability of, and preference for, familiar devices influenced choice of devices used in clinical practice, despite awareness of associated risks. CONCLUSIONS: This understanding of equipment use and the factors that motivate such use have informed the first stage of the knowledge-to-action cycle. Knowledge translation, should include the development of policies to help reduce the risk of sharps injury. Culture change and ongoing skills development might help to overcome entrenched procedures and increase voluntary engagement with safer sharps.

Occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens in a specialized care service in Brazil.

In a retrospective study about the epidemiology of exposure to bloodborne pathogens among health care providers, 71.10% of the analyzed events occurred among health professionals, mainly auxiliary nurses. Percutaneous exposure (83.04%) was the most frequent. Greater advances are necessary in the development of public policies for this issue in terms of inspection of regulatory norms and raising the professionals' awareness through policy and education.

A 5-year surveillance of occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens in a university teaching hospital in Monterrey, Mexico.

BACKGROUND: Occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens (OEBPs) is a serious health and safety concern for health care providers. Lack of experience of medical personal in training could make them more susceptible for acquiring infections by these infectious agents. METHODS: We conducted a 5-year retrospective review of all reported occupational exposures. Characteristics, risk factors, and management of the accidents were obtained from OEBP database. RESULTS: A total of 951 events were analyzed, and 94.3% occurred in medical personnel in training; of those, 87.4% were percutaneous injuries. The emergency room was the hospital ward with more events recorded (34.1%), followed by the internal medicine and surgical wards. A hollow needle was used in 59.1% of the events, a suture needle in 10.7%, and a lancet in 8.8%. Most of events were recorded in the morning shift (38.3%). The months with fewer reports of events were January, July, and December, and the months with the highest reports were the combined months of October 2006 through 2011. CONCLUSION: A high incidence of OEBP in medical personnel in training was detected; this high frequency correlates with the dynamics of the student population during the year and the hands on practice that the nursing and medical students receive.

Acidentes perfurocortantes e avaliação do impacto de um dispositivo de segurança para a sua prevenção em um hospital geral terciário do Rio de Janeiro (2001-2011) / Impact of a safety-engineered device on the prevention of percutaneous accidental exposures in a tertiary general hospital in Rio de Janeiro (2001-2011)

Introdução Os trabalhadores da saúde estão expostos a riscos biológicos no exercício da profissão, particularmente os agentes transmitidos por sangue e secreções, através de acidentes perfurocortantes. A maioria dos países implantou normatizações ou leis visando proteger estes profissionais, entre outros através da introdução de dispositivos de segurança. Desde a publicação da NR.32 em novembro 2005, as novas diretrizes vêm sendo implementadas nas unidades de saúde brasileiras, com dificuldades. Objetivos: (1) Principal: Verificar as alterações na incidência e no perfil dos acidentes perfurocortantes após a introdução de dispositivos de segurança (lanceta retrátil e catéteres para punção venosa periférica) no Hospital Federal dos Servidores do Estado a partir de 2009 em relação ao período anterior (2001-2008). (2) Secundários: – Determinar os tipos de acidentes que sofreram redução. - Determinar a(s) categoria(s) profissional (is) beneficiadas pela introdução do(s) dispositivo(s) – Estimar a relação entre os acréscimos de custos devidos à aquisição do(s) dispositivo(s) e a redução teórica das despesas obtida com diminuição dos acidentes. Métodos. Análise retrospectiva de um arquivo contendo os dados dos acidentes biológicos registrados entre janeiro de 2001 e dezembro de 2011 quanto a natureza do acidente, categoria profissional, tempo de profissão, tipo de instrumento, causa e/ou circunstância. Foram comparados os índices ao longo do tempo, particularmente até 2008 e de 2009 a 2011. Estimou-se também, com a ajuda de um modelo teórico, o impacto eventual de uma lanceta retrátil para coleta da glicemia capilar no orçamento da instituição. Resultados. A proporção dos acidentes perfurocortantes diminuiu a partir de 2009 em comparação com o período anterior (P<0,001). Evidenciou-se uma relação inversa entre a média do tempo de experiência dos profissionais e o número absoluto dos acidentes perfurocortantes...

Background Healthcare workers are exposed to bloodborne pathogens through occupationalinjuries and the replacement of sharps by safety-engineered devices has been recommended asa key preventive measure. This recommendation has been difficult to implement in Brazil.Objectives: (1) Primary. To evaluate the impact of safety-engineered devices (SEDs)introduced since 2008, on the profile of percutaneous exposures reported in a tertiary generalhospital in Rio de Janeiro. (2) Secondary. To determine the nature of avoided exposures, theoccupational group(s) benefited by the SEDs and the hypothetical impact of purchasing thedevice(s) on costs for the institution. Methods. Retrospective study of a database of blood andbody fluid exposures reported from January 2001 through December 2011 in a public generalhospital in Rio de Janeiro where, from the end of 2009, along with SEDs for IV usage, asafety lancet for blood glucose testing (BGT) was introduced. A log-Poisson regression modelwas used to determine the effect of selected co-variates on total percutaneous injuries (PIs)and PIs during BGT. The hypothetical impact of purchasing the safety lancet on costs wasalso analyzed. Results. An inverse relation was apparent between average length ofprofessional experience and absolute number of PIs. Nursing staff had a significant reductionin rate of PIs per 100 full-time equivalents from 2007 to 2011 (P<0.001), while medicalresidents had the highest rate throughout the same period...